COLONEL NORTHsaid, he rose to ask the Paymaster General whether an undertaking was not given by the late Secretary at War, on behalf of the Government, that 120 soldiers' sons should be admitted into the asylum at Chelsea, and whether only fifty soldiers' sons have been admitted: and what was the cause of the delay, and on whom the blame of it was to rest. Since he last called the attention of the House to this subject he had again been to Chelsea, and although at one end of the building in course of erection, preparations were being made for putting on the roof, yet there appeared no chance of the rest of the building being roofed for a month or two, or of its being ready for occupation for five or six months.
§ MR. BOUVERIEsaid, that the only undertaking which had been given, was a statement made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Wiltshire (Mr. S. Herbert) in the course of a debate on a Motion of the hon. Member for Pontefract (Mr. M. Milnes), that in that portion of the hospital occupied by students training to be schoolmasters in regiments, there was accommodation for 120 children, and that he proposed to make arrangements for the introduction of that number. It had turned out that only fifty children could be admitted into that part of the asylum, and a new building had therefore to be erected for the reception of the students training for schoolmasters. He understood that the roof was to be put on the building in about a fortnight, and that the building would be ready for occupation in the course of three months. Whether there had been any unnecessary delay he was not aware, but he understood that the plans had been altered once or twice, and that there had been some difficulty in procuring some of the materials.
§ MR. BOUVERIEreplied, that it was considered essential to their proper training, that they should learn to teach in 75 some school, and none other was so obviously appropriate to this purpose as that of the soldiers' sons.